


You Oughta Know

by erisgregory



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Apologies, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 09:51:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19721251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erisgregory/pseuds/erisgregory
Summary: Alex is meeting Kyle at the bar for their date, but first he runs into Michael. A much needed conversation occurs.





	You Oughta Know

**Author's Note:**

> This has been stuck in my head for days but then I didn't know how to tag it. I'd be kind of upset if I were looking for a Kylex fic and found this and very upset if I were looking for a Malex fic and found this so please be gentle with me. There's not really a good way to tag the relationships here. Also I took the bar names from actual bars in Roswell, NM so blame them for their weirdness.

Alex doesn’t see him until he slides into the stool next to him. He wants to leave, to just stand and go, but he’s meeting Kyle after work and Kyle won’t be there for another ten or fifteen minutes. 

“Not even going to say hello?” Michael asks. There’s an edge to his words that makes Alex bristle.

“Hello.” Alex answers dryly. He downs the rest of his beer and waves the bartender over for another.

Alex has taken to drinking at Farley’s to avoid this very thing that was now happening. Farley’s was a crap bar full of drunken crap people, but the beer was cheap and the bartender hadn’t betrayed him over a guy so that was a bonus.

“So, Valenti, huh?” Michael says the name like it’s something he scraped from his shoe and that makes Alex go hot and cold all at once.

“You don’t get yo talk to me about my love life. You decided that when you started dating Maria.” Alex throws the name at him with as much anger as possible. 

The thing is, Alex knows that’s not entirely fair. He’d pushed Michael away, ended things with him too many times and then just expected he’d be ready for something real once Alex was. Of course things didn’t work out between them. How could they? 

But he’d gone to Maria, that was the unforgivable part. Someone who was supposed to be his best friend, two people who were supposed to care about him, choosing each other over him. No he wasn’t ready to be forgiving. Even though he was with Kyle now. 

Kyle who would be here soon and then they could leave. Or he could leave now and call Kyle, but he was probably already most of the way there. Besides, Alex felt the tiniest bit smug that Michael would have to see him with Kyle as they leave together.

“I’m not, though.” Michael says it so softly that at first Alex is unsure he’s heard correctly.

“What?” Alex forgets his beer and glances back at Michael who looks completely earnest and surprised.

“I said, I’m not. Dating Maria. I’m not.” Michael takes a deep breath and sits up a little straighter. “I thought you knew that.” He adds.

Alex shakes his head. “No. No one tells me anything, remember?” He feels a little bit like the world is tipping too far on its axis. The bar around them has ceased to exist entirely. He almost stands up and walks out because this? This is too strange to be real.

“I’m sorry, I really thought someone would have told you. Maria and I just kissed and then all of that happened with Max dying and needing to be brought back and there was just too much going on and in the end she didn’t really want to hurt you or to be involved with someone who was in love with someone else.” Michael explains. 

Alex maybe hears half of what he says, it’s as if he’s listening through a ball of cotton in his ear, there’s a low level hum and everything is muted, like a bomb has gone off and he’s temporarily stunned by it.

“Maria never said anything, how can that be?” Alex asks. He’s not particularly asking Michael, but Michael goes ahead and answers like he is. 

“I think she just feels really guilty. I know I do. I was an asshole for leaving you in the lurch like that and for kissing Maria, but that’s all that happened. So you really didn’t know? All this time you thought we were seeing each other?” Michael asks.

“I really didn’t know.” Alex echoes the words as though trying to get it all to sink in.

Michael laughs humorlessly. “And so this Valenti thing, is that supposed to be payback?”

That snaps Alex back to reality. “What? No! No, of course not. Kyle’s been there for me. It sort of just happened.”

“You know, we all thought he was straight. So how does that just happen?” Michael wants to know.

Alex fixes him with a stare. “You really don’t have the right to ask, even now.” Alex tells him.

Michael holds up his hands in defeat. “Fine. It just happened and now you’re with him and I’ve been avoiding the Pony so I wouldn’t have to see you there and I’m guessing that’s why you’re here. Because the Black Cock Brewery is too pricey. I would know because that’s where I’ve been until tonight.” 

Alex just nods silently. 

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” Michael says. 

“Hey babe.” Kyle says walking up. He looks between them, eyebrows creasing. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, I’m ready, can we just go?” Alex asks, standing.

“Sure.” Kyle says. “We can go. See you around, Guerin.” He says, slinging a proprietary arm around Alex’s shoulders.

Michael appears to slump just the tiniest bit but doesn’t say anything. They get a few paces away before Alex stops and turns around. He stares at Michael just a bit longer than he means to. “It’s worth a lot.” He tells Michael. Then he turns and walks out with Kyle.

Alex is happy with Kyle, he really is, but that night he cries himself to sleep in his pillow. He cries for missed opportunities and for miscommunications. He cries for pushing Michael away so many times and for not asking about Michael and Maria’s relationship. He cries because it’s well and truly over and because Michael had said Maria couldn’t be with him because he was in love with someone else.

Finally he cries just to let it all out. He cries like never before until the tears are all gone and all that’s left is a sense of closure. There in the silent darkness of his bedroom he promises to do better in the future. Better by Michael and better by Kyle. He can learn from his mistakes and be a better person. He can get help maybe, see that therapist his VA doctor recommended. He can change and he will change. And he will apologize to Michael the way Michael had apologized to him.

Then, just maybe, he will find peace.


End file.
